Night and Fog Review
RATING: **** (4/4) (4 STARS) Alain Resnais originally didn’t want to make Night and Fog, and following its production, he suffered from prolonged nightmares. A viewer might experience something...
View Article5 Essential 30 for 30 Documentaries
Over at Sound on Sight, I wrote a piece on the best of ESPN’s incredible 30 for 30 series of sports documentaries in honor of March Madness and the debut of its latest film, Requiem for the Big East. I...
View ArticleTribeca 2014: ‘All About Ann’
Over at Sound on Sight, my coverage of the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival began yesterday with a review of the charming political documentary All About Ann: Governor Richards of the Lone Star State. The...
View ArticleTribeca 2014: ‘Next Goal Wins’
My 2014 Tribeca Film Festival continues over at Sound on Sight with my review of the sports documentary Next Goal Wins, which profiles the American Samoan national soccer team, which went 30 years...
View ArticleTribeca 2014: ‘When the Garden Was Eden’
Over at Sound on Sight, I’ve written a review of the latest 30 for 30 documentary, When the Garden Was Eden, which premiered at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival. The film won’t premiere on ESPN for a...
View ArticleThe Case Against 8 Review
RATING: ***½ (3.5/4) (3.5 STARS) Documentaries of well-covered (or heavily covered, depending on your view on the state of professional journalism) subjects too often feel disposable because those in...
View Article10 Criterion Documentaries You Should Buy This Month
My latest post for Sound on Sight (and first in a while) went up over the weekend. It’s a plea to cinephiles everywhere to consider some non-fiction when they make their half-off Criterion purchases...
View ArticleLife Itself Review
RATING: **** (4/4) (4 STARS) “A film like Hoop Dreams is what the movies are for. It takes us, shakes us, and make us think in new ways about the world around us. It gives us the impression of having...
View ArticleElaine Stritch: Shoot Me Review
RATING: ***½ (3.5/4) (3.5 STARS) There are a lot of obvious and superficial similarities between Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me and, from a few years ago, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work. Both follow older...
View ArticleThe Battered Bastards of Baseball Review
RATING: ***~ (3/4) (3 STARS) It’s a shame “For the Love of the Game” is already spoken for as far as baseball movie titles go. I think Chicago Cubs fans could be a little peeved at the implication that...
View ArticleLet’s Talk About 2014’s Awesome Documentaries
“This has been a banner year for documentary filmmaking.” Fans of the genre—myself included—have been saying that on a yearly basis for a while, it seems, but I’d say it’s never been truer than it is...
View ArticleAmy Review
RATING: ***½ (3.5/4) (3.5 STARS) I remember where I was when I found out Amy Winehouse died. At a Subway in New Jersey, I can still picture what I was wearing, what kind of day it was, how the...
View ArticleThe Wolfpack Review
RATING: **~~ (2/4) (2 STARS) There’s a beautiful story somewhere in the mess that is The Wolfpack. There’s also an uplifting story, a terrifying story, a comedy, a tragedy, and who knows what else. So...
View ArticleBallet 422 Review
RATING: ***½ (3.5/4) (3.5 STARS) There’s a sequence two-thirds into Ballet 422, Jody Lee Lipes’ hands-off documentary chronicling a wunderkind choreographer’s attempt to bring a ballet from idea to...
View ArticleListen to Me Marlon Review
RATING: ***½ (3.5/4) (3.5 STARS) Listen to Me Marlon is a one-of-a-kind documentary. There have been plenty of non-fiction films — plenty even this year with Amy, Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, and...
View ArticleAmerican Dream Review
The Cinessential writes a related review each week for the film it’s highlighting. For Harlan County U.S.A. week, I decided to write my related review on Barbara Kopple’s other excellent workers’...
View ArticleWon’t You Be My Neighbor?
RATING: ***½ (3.5/4) (3.5 STARS) Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, from Oscar-winning director Morgan Neville, is something of a safe lob down the middle for the adult movie-going public in 2018. Nostalgia...
View ArticleFYC 2018: Documentaries
This post includes mini-reviews of some of 2018’s documentaries with an eye on films various studios are targeting for the 2019 Oscars and other end-of-year awards (including the OFCS awards which I’ll...
View ArticleElaine Stritch: Shoot Me Review
RATING: ***½ (3.5/4) (3.5 STARS) There are a lot of obvious and superficial similarities between Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me and, from a few years ago, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work. Both follow older...
View ArticleThe Battered Bastards of Baseball Review
RATING: ***~ (3/4) (3 STARS) It’s a shame “For the Love of the Game” is already spoken for as far as baseball movie titles go. I think Chicago Cubs fans could be a little peeved at the implication that...
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